Bosch Brewing Company Radio Commercials
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Commercials produced by Clinton E. Frank, Inc., includes 33-1/3 rpm recording disks, possibly master copies, of Bosch Brewing Company's radio advertising campaigns and one cassette tape with a copy of the recordings.
Dates
- 1959-1964
Language of Material
English
Conditions Governing Access
Available for use in the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
Various copying restrictions apply. Guidelines are available from Michigan Technological University Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections.
Historical Note
Clinton E. Frank (1915-1992) attended Yale University and graduated with a degree in economics, after which he went into the advertising business. Frank attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Air Corps, serving as an aide to General Jimmy Doolittle during World War II. Following the war he resumed his career in advertising. In 1954 Frank established Clinton E. Frank Inc., a Chicago based advertising agency which was sold to Campbell-Ewald Co. of Detroit in 1976. Frank is probably more well-known for his football prowess, becoming the third winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1937 as a two-way back for Yale University. He was elected to the National Football Hall of Fame in 1955 and in 1988 was named recipient of the Gold Medal, the hall's highest award. __Joseph Bosch, founder of the Bosch Brewing Company, had always yearned to enter the brewing industry. He had learned much from his father, a brewer in his native country of Germany, who had brought the family to Lake Linden, Michigan in 1867. A desire for more knowledge and experience led the young Bosch to Cleveland, Fort Wayne and finally Milwaukee, where he worked for the Schlitz brewery. He returned to Lake Linden in 1874, erected a small wooden building and began brewing operations as the Torch Lake Brewery, Joseph Bosch & Company. Bosch operated the brewery on his own for the first two years, but in 1876 admitted several men on a partnership basis. The company continued as a partnership until around 1894, when the reorganized firm issued stock under its new name, the Bosch Brewing Company. The company continued in operation for nearly a century, closing the last of its facilities in 1973. In the early years of brewing in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, little if any beer was sold in bottles. Bosch saw the potential of this packaging, however, and the company began bottling on a small scale before 1880. By 1883, the original wooden building in Lake Linden had been enlarged and the company was producing 4,000 barrels of beer annually, one quarter of which was bottled. The brewery was completely destroyed in a great fire that swept through Lake Linden in 1887, but the demand for its product fired quick construction of new facilities. By the turn of the century the Bosch Brewing Company had brewing facilities in Lake Linden and Houghton, as well as branches and storehouses in Calumet/Laurium, Hancock, Ishpeming, Eagle Harbor and Ishpeming. Having survived the difficult years of prohibition, the company finally closed the Lake Linden facility in favor of the better-situated facilities in Houghton. Stressing the relationship of its product and the community, the Bosch Brewing Company featured many local themes in its advertising. Promotional phrases such as the "Refreshing as the Sportman's Paradise" kept the small brewery close to the hearts of Copper Country natives and visitors from farther afield. The company found itself increasingly unable to compete locally with the larger breweries of Milwaukee and St. Louis, however, and the last keg of beer was ceremoniously loaded onto a wagon for delivery to a local tavern on Friday, September 28, 1973 (from "The Bosch Brewing Company," http://www.lib.mtu.edu/mtuarchives/bosch/bosch.aspx, accessed March 2010).
Extent
0.56 Cubic Feet (1 manuscript box)
Abstract
Commercials, 1959-1964, for the Bosch Brewing Company, a brewery in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Produced by Clinton E. Frank, Inc., includes 33-1/3 rpm recording disks, possibly master copies, of Bosch Brewing Company's radio advertising campaigns.
Arrangement
Chronological
Immediate Source of Acquisition
One cubic foot of records consisting of audio recordings of Bosch Brewing Company commercials were donated to the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections by Dennis Moore on September 3, 1987.
Material Specific Details
The commercials can be accessed on the cassette tape with the cassette player in the archives.
- Title
- Bosch Brewing Company Radio Commercials
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Elizabeth Russell, revised by Rachael Bussert
- Date
- 3/29/2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
Repository Details
Part of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections Repository